Perspectives
Sonos App Updates, from a PM Lens
Recently, Sonos updated a new version of their well-liked mobile app on the App Store and Google Play. Unfortunately, many users and business owners were extremely unhappy with the quite large feature set update. Loyal Sonos users everywhere shared their distaste for the mobile app update. Users were so furious, that their “failed update” echoed to news articles and feedback outrage. The release was even considered “mishandled.” Comprised value of quality and user experience irked users.
“Sonos-the much-maligned home audio company- continues to find itself ensnared in a crisis entirely of its own making. The botched rollout of its new app isn’t just a technical failure-it’s a full-blown “App-ocalypse” that reveals a leadership team out of touch and out of its depth.”
“When customers invest in premium products, they expect premium service and functionality. Sono’s failure to deliver on this expectation risk eroding the very foundation of its brand. The company has outlined a roadmap with fixes, with updates expected throughout the rest of 2024 to address stability issues an restore critical features.”
Sonos’ reputation is built on “seamless, high-quality audio experiences.” With over 15 million users, Sonos historically has always had loyal users. Sonos offers up to 22 seamless speakers along with a solid and performing mobile app. I do resonate with other users who share “The new app is far too different from the previous version to spring on people unexpectedly and without permission. Utterly needless confusion.”
As a Product Management leader in innovative apps, I followed this closely as Sonos fan and user, and case study. I became most interested in the steps Sonos as a business would take to make amends with their users. I am also able to understand and offer a social and professional feedback here. “It is entirely a product management screw up,” one user shared. Of course, the CEO and leadership have had severe scrutiny. That’s what consumers are saying, but it’s so much more. Sonos terminated over 100 employees, leadership was extremely scrutinized.
The reality is, there are so many things could have be done. As for the product teams, I believe they had good intentions, but agree with the public that this release held too many feature sets, challenges, and technicalities in one single release.
My initial thoughts:
- Would they roll back?
- How would they communicate to their users?
- Did they consider a cross-segmentation rollout?
- Where was A/B testing implemented?
- How will they make sense out of the user feedback?
- Who are the best users to talk to?
All I can think about is the meetings and working sessions it will take to bounce back.
Patrick Spence, Sonos’s CEO, addressed the situation, stating, “We recognize that the recent app update has fallen short of our users’ expectations. We are committed to improving the experience and have prioritized restoring the functionality our customers rely on.”
The CEO quickly communicated to loyal users that the team understood their pain points, the failure, and their understanding of the feedback. He also took responsibility for the business putting out bad-performing applications that are also mixed with technicalities, etc., etc. I’m sure many product and tech talks were had, a war room was created and employees racked their brains on the new best decisions.
Sonos CEO noted that they could not do a rollback after suggesting to users that perhaps they could. The Sonos team followed up with updates to releases in the coming months. You can read more about those planned releases and information, here.
I could go in many different directions. However, these are some of the things that stand out to me, to correct the issue from a product and marketing perspective. Of course, these do not cover all the things (deep dives into technology and technical development that may have been impacted as well, etc.).
This part is focused on connecting with users immediately to gather feedback and pain points. This part is about promoting internal positivity and balance, championing engagement and collaboration throughout the orgnization.
Supporting users and internal teams through the transition, prioritization, documentation, release management is the priority goal. Allowing internal teams to reiterate on the strategy, vision, and roadmap to keep brand loyalty and customer satisfaction.